SIR WILLIAM
LOWER
(c.1570-1615)

Introduction

The introduction of the telescope into astronomy at the
start of the 17th century revolutionised people's understanding
of the Universe. The immediate discoveries supported the
Copernican model, which put the Sun at the centre of
the planetary system rather than the Earth.
Among the pioneers of the telescope in astronomy were
Galileo Galilei, Thomas Harriot, Simon Marius, and in
Carmarthenshire, Sir William Lower and John Prydderch.

This page is an extended version of an article written in 2003
for the Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers.

Early life

William Lower was born in Cornwall in either 1569 or 1570.
[2]
He was the eldest son and heir of Thomas Lower of Winnow in Cornwall.
His brothers included Nicholas Lower (later Sir Nicholas)
and Alexander Lower. [2]

He went to university at Oxford, entering Exeter College in
June 1586 at the age of 16. In 1589 he studied at the Middle Temple
in London.
He was elected to the English Parliament in September 1601 as
member of parliament
for Bodmin in Cornwall, and later represented Lostwithiel from
1604 to 1611.
He was knighted by King James I of Great Britain in 1603.
[2,6,8]

A Carmarthenshire scientist and landowner

Despite his strong Cornish background, William Lower married
Penelope Perrot from Carmarthenshire around 1601,
and moved to her family's estate at Trefenty in southwest Wales
(which has also been spelt Trefenti, Treventy and even Tra'venti).
Penelope Perrot had inherited her father's estate on his
death. Her mother had remarried the Earl of
Northumberland in 1586, the Earl becoming her stepfather.
This brought Lower and the Earl into close contact.

Left: Lower's estate at Trefenty
from page 266 of Seryddiaeth a Seryddwyr.
[4]
Silas Evans credits a Mrs. Davies, The Vicarage,
Llanfihangel-Abercowin, for the picture.

Meanwhile, the Earl became the chief patron of the
distinguished English scientist Thomas Harriot; Harriot moved
to the Earl's estate at Syon House, Isleworth, Middlesex,
which was then a short distance outside London. It was here that Harriot
carried out much of his research. Lower and Harriot
became good friends. They corresponded regularly on scientific
issues including astronomy, mathematics and physics; the
surviving correspondence is the main source of information
about Lower's astronomical activities.
[1]

In 1607, from Carmarthenshire, Sir William Lower observed
the bright comet which had appeared in the sky that September;
we now know that this was Halley's Comet.
He observed it regularly between 17th September and 6th October
with the naked eye and used a cross-staff to measure its position
in relation to the stars. His first observation on the 17th
September was made as he travelled on a ship across the
Bristol Channel to Wales, when he saw
the comet in Ursa Major. He attempted to follow it each night
if the weather permitted. Lower sent his measurements to
Harriot at Syon House, who also made his own measurements.
While these observations were not published at the time,
some were published by F. X. von Zach in 1784; these data
were subsequently used by an obscure apprentice named Friedrich
Wilhelm Bessel to refine the orbit of Comet Halley. As a
result of this work, Bessel was appointed to a position in
an observatory and went on to become one of the most important
astronomers and mathematicians of his day, thanks in a very small
way to the observations of Lower and Harriot!
[1]

A pioneer of the telescope in astronomy

The invention of the telescope is conventionally credited to
Lippershey in the Netherlands in 1608. Within a year, news
had reached Galileo Galilei in Italy and Harriot in England.
Harriot, who was an expert in optics, constructed his own
telescopes and used them to observe the sky. He sent a
telescope to Lower in Wales. [1,3]

Sir William Lower turned the telescope to the sky, working with
his friend John Prydderch (or Protheroe) of Nantyrhebog,
Carmarthenshire. [1,4]
He established his observatory on some high ground near
his house.
In a letter to Harriot dated 6th February, 1610 - the most
famous of their correspondence - Lower
described the appearance of the Moon through the telescope:

According as you wished, I have observed the moone in all
his changes. In the new manifestlie I discover the earthshine
a little before the dichotomie; that spot which represents unto
me the man in the moone (but without a head) is first to
be seene. A little after, neare the brimme of the gibbous parts
towards the upper corner appeare luminous parts like starres;
much brighter than the rest; and the whole brimme along
looks like unto the description of coasts in the Dutch
books of voyages. In the full she appears like a tart that
my cooke made me last weeke; here a vaine of bright stuffe,
and there of darke, and so confusedlie all over.
I must confess I can see none of this without my cylinder.
[3,8]

This description shows that Sir William had observed the
irregular character of the Moon's surface, seeing craters
(though he did not recognise their exact character).

Lower then went on to describe his work with his Carmarthenshire
colleague John Prydderch (or Protheroe):

Yet an ingenious younge man that accompanies me here often,
and loves you, and these studies much, sees manie of these
things even without the helpe of the instrument, but with
it sees them most planlie I mean the younge Mr. Protheröe.
[1,8]

Left: the cartoon of Lower and
Prydderch on page 265 of Seryddiaeth a Seryddwyr.
[4]
Lower looks through a telescope while Prydderch holds a
cross-staff.
The cartoon had been used earlier by Arthur Mee in his book
The Story of the Telescope in 1909.
[5]
The artist was J. M. Staniforth, the artist-in-chief of
the Western Mail newspaper.

Several weeks later, Galileo published his own observations in
his book Sidereus Nuncius. We see that Lower and
Prydderch had made their observations at a similar time to
Galileo. However, they, like Harriot, failed to publish
their discoveries. For that reason, the scientific credit
for discovering the irregular character of the lunar
surface goes to Galileo, who also published his discovery
of satellites of Jupiter, the phases of Venus and sunspots.
[1,3]

Following Galileo's announcements, in December 1610
Harriot and Lower themselves observed the satellites of Jupiter
while Lower was visiting Syon House. Lower was present when
Harriot first observed sunspots at sunrise. On returning to
Carmarthenshire, Lower and Prydderch were, however, unable to
see the Galilean satellites, which suggests that Lower's own
telescope was of lower quality than those of Harriot.
On a later visit to Syon house in December 1611, Lower himself
saw sunspots.
[1]

His later years

Sir William Lower continued to live at Trefenty. He died
on 12th April, 1615, aged 45 years. [1,2]
He was survived by his wife Lady Penelope and a daughter, Dorothy.
At the time of his death, Penelope Lower was pregnant and
subsequently gave birth to a son, Thomas, the heir to Sir William.
Penelope later remarried, to Sir Robert Naughton and
moved to live with him in London. [1]
Of the children, Thomas died in 1660.
[1]

[8.]
S. P. Rigaud, Supplement to Dr. Bradley's Miscellaneous Works:
with an Account of Harriot's Astronomical Papers, published by
the Oxford University Press in 1833 (reprinted by the Johnson
Reprint Corporation, New York, 1972).
[A
scanned version is available at the
Google Books resource.]

[9.]
J. O. Halliwell, A Collection of Letters Illustrative of the
Progress of Science in England from the Reign of Queen Elizabeth
to that of Charles the Second, published by the Historical
Society of Science, London, 1841.
[A
scanned version is available at the
Internet Archive.]

Further reading

A short, but excellent, account of the lives of both Lower and
Prydderch can be found in the book Thomas Harriot:
A Biography by John W. Shirley, Clarendon Press, Oxford,
1983.

Arthur Mee of Cardiff researched the work of Lower and
Prydderch. Mee quoted articles by himself in the
magazines Knowledge in December 1908,
and The Nationalist in October 1908.
Shirley quotes an article by Mee in the transactions of the
Carmarthenshire Antiquarian Society, IV, 43-44 (1908-1909).
An article also appeared in the magazine Wales in 1894.
The author of this page has not had the opportunity to
examine these publications.

Some of Sir William Lower's letters to Harriot were published by
S. P. Rigaud in 1833 (Supplement to Dr. Bradley's
Miscellaneous Works: with an Account of Harriot's Astronomical
Papers, published by the Oxford University Press;
it was reprinted by the Johnson Reprint Corporation, New York, 1972).
A biography of Lower appeared on pages 68-70 (as Note I).

Transcriptions of other letters by Lower to Harriot appeared in
A Collection of Letters Illustrative of the Progress of Science
in England from the Reign of Queen Elizabeth to that of Charles the
Second
by J. O. Halliwell, published by the Historical Society of Science,
London, 1841.

No entry about Lower (nor John Prydderch) appears in
the Dictionary of Welsh Biography, the Dictionary of
Scientific Biography or in the old Dictionary of National
Biography.